


so show me family

by everqueen



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Post-Canon, Sickfic, and also June as rogue, featuring excellent soup and dramatic readings, ren is overworked and gets sick and gets reminded of how much everyone loves her
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-07-13 07:23:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16013084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everqueen/pseuds/everqueen
Summary: Ren works too hardIt's very easy to get sick, when you work too hardFortunately, Ren also has a very big family to take care of herA belated birthday fic for Marilyn who is a delight and I love her(title from "Hey Ho" by The Lumineers)





	so show me family

**Author's Note:**

  * For [marilynthedork](https://archiveofourown.org/users/marilynthedork/gifts).



Ren is a busy elf.

She’s still based in Refuge, she couldn’t just leave her _home_ , but now she’s stepping through portals to Taako’s school every morning. It’s not much of a commute, so to speak, and she knows June is fully capable of handling the Davy Lamp. But it’s a hell of a thing, running a magic school, especially when the supposed head is off gallivanting with his boyfriend in the Astral Plane, or commanding kraken gods on the high seas, or becoming Santa’s assistant for some reason one Candlenights.

And maybe she’s taking on a bit much, what with starting up a whole teacher exchange program solely so Taako can get his magic boy teaching for “the right team”, as he calls it, without having to actually negotiate pay with Angus.

For the record, Ren is putting diamonds on Angus coming out on top in _that_ particular conversation, when it happens.

Point being, she’s got a lot to do.

She’s at her desk at the school, now, most available surfaces covered in papers, and Ren usually prides herself on keeping a neat and clean workspace but there’s a lot, right now. Taako keeps pulling in kids outta _nowhere_ (honestly, it’s like he goes to other _planes_ just to find more) and telling her to find a place for them, even if it means building _another_ new dorm, and Ren can do it, she can! But it’s a whole lotta paperwork that always somehow lands on her desk, and this is the third week in a row she’s pulled 12-hour days every day at the school.

She stands with a sigh, finally done with the paperwork for the latest batch of transmutation-talented street kids. She sways, head swimming, and catches herself on her desk. “Whoa there,” she mutters to herself, rubbing at her pounding temple with one hand. “Okay, I’m okay, I got this.”

She walks – or stumbles, rather – to the portal room, which Taako is fond of maintaining, and wearily steps through.

“Hi Ms. Ren!” Angus chirps.

“Angus?” Ren asks, rubbing at her bleary eyes. “What are you doing in the Davy Lamp?”

“Ms. Ren?” Angus asks, and now he sounds concerned, although her vision is swimming for some reason? So she can’t focus on him enough to see what has him worried. “This isn’t the Davy Lamp. You’re in our house.”

“Oh,” Ren tries to laugh it off, rubbing at her head. “Whoops, sorry there little man, I’ll just—” she turns back towards the portal and stumbles again. There’s no desk to catch herself on, so she just plops down on the floor instead. Distantly, she hears Angus shout for Taako, hears running feet and loud conversation, but right now the floor seems like a good place to be, so she stays there. It’s also a tremendous amount of energy to keep her eyes open, so she doesn’t bother. She’s out of it enough to not feel the hands carefully, gently, pick her up.

 

*

 

“She’s gonna be fine, you know,” June says, watching Taako attempt to wear a path through the floor in Ren’s room above the Davy Lamp. She’s taken to wearing darker clothes recently, after her rogue lessons with Carey and Davenport, although there’s a thick red stripe around her arms that stands out against her dark skin. She’s perched on the drawer flipping a dagger end over end, her thick brown hair twisted into tight braids that are tied back in an elegant knot at the base of her neck.

Angus, sitting in an actual chair not far from Ren’s bed, next to the drawer June is sitting on, is nodding along in agreement. “She’s just tired, sir,” he says. “It’s a lot easier to get sick when you’re tired, and Merle said it was just a bug.”

Taako snorts, still pacing. “What did an actual healer say?” he says, otherwise ignoring them both. He glances up when Roswell flits up the stairs, settling on the tip of June’s dagger. She stops flipping it, angling it instead towards Taako.

“Paloma’s downstairs with the ingredients you requested,” the bird tells Taako, cocking their head as he makes another turn. “She’s prepping her scone magic too.”

“Baller scones, but she’s _sick_ ,” Taako says, turning on his heel and making for the door. He pops his head back in after a moment, pointing at Angus, June, and Roswell in turn. “If _anything_ changes, come get me right away.”

“Okay, sir,” Angus says, waiting until Taako leaves again to roll his eyes along with June.

The older girl grins as Roswell flits to Angus’s shoulder and starts flipping her dagger again. “He gets real worried, don’t he?” she asks wryly.

“He does,” Angus agrees. “Despite what he likes to pretend.”

Roswell circles Ren in the bed a few times, looking down at her. “Is she gonna be okay?”

“Merle said she was just over-tired,” Angus says patiently. “It happens to me sometimes too, and Taako gets the same way. He puts me in bed and piles so many blankets on me that I can’t move, and then makes soup and reads to me until I get better.”

“I dunno if she’ll want him to read to her,” June says.

“Everyone comes over to visit too,” Angus says thoughtfully. “Magnus brings his dogs, Merle grumbles but casts his healing spells, Mr. Kravitz promises very seriously that I won’t die—”

“Is that for you, or Uncle Taako?” Mavis asks, slipping through the door and fist-bumping June. Below, they can hear the familiar gruff tones of Merle, ribbing Taako in the kitchen, and the booming sounds of Magnus laughing with Paloma.

“Probably Taako,” Angus says, giving her a hug in greeting. “He and Aunt Lup and Uncle Barry like to join in on the reading, too. They do all sorts of voices.”

“I’ve heard,” Mavis says. “Mookie eats so many things he shouldn’t that he gets sick more than any of us.” She grimaces. “It would help if Merle stopped giving him those gross root beer barrels.”

“He’s real worried, huh?” June says, head tilted towards the still-open door. They can all smell the strong, savory notes of the soup Taako’s cooking. “He’s still down there complaining to Paloma about what’s wrong with Miss Ren.” She smiles and hops down off the dresser. “Davenport’s here, with the rest of em.”

“You can really hear all that from up here?” Mavis asks.

“I keep tellin ya to join us for rogue lessons,” June says, flipping her dagger to Mavis, who squeaks but manages to catch it without hurting herself. She laughs at Angus frowning at her and heads down to the kitchen, leaving them in the room with a still-sleeping Ren.

Or at least, they thought she was asleep.

“W-what’s goin on?” comes a hoarse voice from the bed.

Angus, Roswell, and Mavis turn to find Ren blinking tiredly at them from below several blankets, the circles underneath her eyes darker than usual in her pale skin. She coughs weakly and offers them a slight smile. “Why am I in bed?”

“You collapsed,” Angus explains. “Merle said it was because you were working too much and got sick.”

“I’m not—” Ren interrupts herself with a cough. “I’m not sick.”

“It’s okay,” Mavis says earnestly. “Angus has been telling me all the stuff you do for the school. It sounds like you do a lot.”

“You’ve earned a break,” Roswell adds as they flit to the pillow next to Ren’s head

“Really, I’m okay,” Ren insists, trying and failing to rise from the bed.

“Taako’s gonna be up in just a second with soup,” Angus says, and now they can all hear it, rogue training or not. Taako sounds like he’s leading a whole troupe up the stairs, and that’s not far off. He shoulders his way through the door, carrying a steaming bowl of delicious-smelling soup, followed by what seems to be not only the entire IPRE, but half the residents of Refuge as well, and some familiar faces from the BoB.

“You’re awake!” Taako exclaims. He waves Magnus out of the way and maneuvers carefully to Ren’s bedside, settling the bowl of soup on his leg. “How are you feeling?”

“Pretty shit, actually,” Ren admits. “I’m sorry, I—”

“Nope!” Lup calls, slipping through the crowd to sit on the other side of Ren’s bed and smiling at the drow. “No sorrys when you’re sick! This is our aunt’s special recipe, guaran-goddamn-teed to make you feel better in no time.”

“And you know the other thing that will make you feel better?” comes Paloma’s voice, although the tiny old woman is lost in the crowd until Magnus plunges his hand in and retrieves her. The witch is grinning, holding a thick book in her wrinkled hands. She lifts the book like a holy tome, displaying the cover: Caleb Cleveland and the Case of the Tricky Tiefling, widely considered to be the best of the early run for dismantling common stereotypes about tieflings, as well as being an excellent murder mystery.

“That’s right!” Taako says decisively. “We’re all ready to do the voices and everything.”

“I get to be the tiefling!” Magnus declares.

“Creesh is narrating,” Lup adds, although Taako rolls his eyes. Lucretia, barely visible in the crowd, waves with a smile as Lup continues, “She has the best gravitas.”

“Yall, this is real sweet,” Ren says, struggling to sit up until Barry, having slipped up to be next to his wife, gently helps her. “But really, I got so much work to get done, yall don’t have to do—”

“Nooooooope,” Taako cuts her off with a spoonful of soup. “No work when you’re sick, just soup and dramatic readings.”

“This  _is_ a good one, ma’am,” Angus adds.

“Angus does do a very good Caleb,” June says, somehow back on the dresser, nudging Angus with her foot when he blushes.

Davenport, somehow sitting next to her, nods in agreement. “He’s the best.”

“ _And_ ,” Taako says dramatically as a rift opens up next to him and an awkward Kravitz steps through. “We have a living cold pack for you!”

“Uh, dove, I don’t think—” Kravitz starts.

“No, Taako,” Ren says firmly, punctuating it with a cough. She’s sitting up, weakly holding the spoon, but even sick and tired, she still stares Taako down. “Your boyfriend does _not_ have to do that. But everything else,” and she smiles slightly. “Well, it sounds real nice.”

“Eeeeeeexcelleeeent,” Taako says as Kravitz, visibly relieved, settles himself next to Angus. “Well everyone, settle in for the best dramatic reading of your lives,” and he smiles, just for Ren. “For the best damn second in command in the Prime Material Plane.”

Ren sniffles a little bit at that, eyes watering, while Lup conjures tissues and Lucretia ceremoniously cracks open the novel. She begins: “It was a dark and stormy night, the rain pouring down in sheets on the streets of Neverwinter…”

And there, in her warm bed, a bowl of the best soup she’d ever eaten on her lap, surrounded by friends and family, Ren smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> it's a sickfic yall! hope you enjoyed
> 
> you know the thing with the comments and the kudos and what have you
> 
> thanks i love you bye!


End file.
